Overview: Love fighting with the Scroll of Knowledge but you've made it up to the big leagues? Looks like you've found the right weapon.

The Good: What I really like about this weapon is its ability to come out ahead of the Hidden Tower swords like Sword of Reif and other Hidden-Tower-level weapons like Pirate Captains Cutlass and Kelpbeards Trident. With many mid and upper-range weapons having some physical, this really gets a nice boost, as at least some of the physical will probably always hit. If a pet is going into a battle that's looking to be a Hidden Tower match, this pairs well with wither a Sword of Reif or {{Sword of Skardsden}} to evade the inevitable Hubrid Nox Memorial Shield

The Bad: My favourite shield in the game, Hubrid Nox Memorial Shield, utterly destroys this weapon's attack. In fact, you could beat dual Fan of Swords with a HNMS and a two-neopoint Scroll of Ultranova. Alternatively, Ghostkershield rips it down to 13 icons, so any Hidden Tower Sword + Ghostkershield will beat dual wielding. So basically, Fan of Swords can't just rock out there by itself. It will always need some backup. The best bet is a Sword of Reif, as that's untouched by Ghostkershield and Hubrid Nox Memorial Shield, and will make the combo rather effective.

The Ugly Truth: Excelling at both slugging and strategic play, the Fan of Swords is a great addition to a Hidden Tower lineup, given that you have countermeasures for the defense that it will draw out.

Power: 4/517 offensive icons is quite a big hit, even though it is overpriced with regards to shear power compared to the anagram swords or kelpbeards trident. However you do get 5 additional defensive ones for a total of 22 and let's be honest: even though mass physical is rare, most weapons at this level pack some physical so you're quite likely to actually block a bunch which justifies the higher price tag this carries.

Counters: 2/3Now here comes the awkward part: this is pretty much the exact opposite of the anagram swords and more along the lines of Scroll of Knowledge. It's pretty much impossible to completely block due to the big spread, but Hubrid Nox Memorial Shield will decimate this even if it's dual-wielded and other common shields like Ghostkershield or Faerie Tabard will just as well take a big bunch out of this.

However, that's basically the nice part about it. Just like you'd try to detour your enemy from using a shield with Glittery Faerie Dust you'd use this to encourage them to do so making your way for a devastating blow with one of the many mono-iconers bypassing the shield.

Now why is it really great at doing so? Because an anagram sword combine with this fan will come out ahead of two anagram swords, so your opponent definetely has to do something about it.

Uniqueness: 1/1A HT level+ weapon with such a big spread that isn't random is pretty hard to find - even more so as dual-duty blocking the all too common physical.

Bonus: 1/1Surprisingly the most thought through weapon released in years - I want more of those!

At the time of this review, Fan of Swords is the newest addition to the Hidden Tower; consider me a fan of this fan. Fan of Swords has a Scroll of Knowledge-esque attack, but this fan functions more as a HT-level Rusty Pitchfork

At a stock price of 16.8M, Fan of Swords is one of the most expensive weapons currently available for sale in the Hidden Tower. Although this price may seem daunting, remember that years ago Pirate Captains Cutlass was considered a top-notch choice despite selling for near its 16M stock price on the open market. Yes, the game has changed and HT-standard Anagram Swords now sell for just over 10M, but Fan of Swords is still reasonably priced for those players with pockets deep enough to afford multiple Hidden Tower-level items. Fan of Swords pushes the limits of what is reasonable for a Hidden Tower weapon of this caliber, but it does not quite exceed the limits.

Fan of Swords is a 17-5 Dual Duty that has a potential of 22 total icons. This total is very powerful for the Hidden Tower level of battling, especially considering that Fan of Swords provides most of these icons via offense. Many players have cried about the fact Fan of Swords has many fractional icons, writing it off as junk for this reason. Do not make this mistake. Although the 20 icons pictured for Fan of Swords can be very misleading, 17 icons of offense is very reasonable. Remember that the Anagram Swords and Kelpbeards Trident average roughly 18 icons; this means that Fan of Swords provides just one icon less of offense in exchange for 5 icons of Physical defense, a quite beneficial trade off. When taking into consideration that the An...

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At the time of this review, Fan of Swords is the newest addition to the Hidden Tower; consider me a fan of this fan. Fan of Swords has a Scroll of Knowledge-esque attack, but this fan functions more as a HT-level Rusty Pitchfork

At a stock price of 16.8M, Fan of Swords is one of the most expensive weapons currently available for sale in the Hidden Tower. Although this price may seem daunting, remember that years ago Pirate Captains Cutlass was considered a top-notch choice despite selling for near its 16M stock price on the open market. Yes, the game has changed and HT-standard Anagram Swords now sell for just over 10M, but Fan of Swords is still reasonably priced for those players with pockets deep enough to afford multiple Hidden Tower-level items. Fan of Swords pushes the limits of what is reasonable for a Hidden Tower weapon of this caliber, but it does not quite exceed the limits.

Fan of Swords is a 17-5 Dual Duty that has a potential of 22 total icons. This total is very powerful for the Hidden Tower level of battling, especially considering that Fan of Swords provides most of these icons via offense. Many players have cried about the fact Fan of Swords has many fractional icons, writing it off as junk for this reason. Do not make this mistake. Although the 20 icons pictured for Fan of Swords can be very misleading, 17 icons of offense is very reasonable. Remember that the Anagram Swords and Kelpbeards Trident average roughly 18 icons; this means that Fan of Swords provides just one icon less of offense in exchange for 5 icons of Physical defense, a quite beneficial trade off. When taking into consideration that the Anagram Swords rarely hit anywhere in the 20-icon range, the 17 icons of offense that Fan of Swords offers are very reasonable.

Fan of Swords' defense is incredibly useful. 5 icons of Physical defense may not seem like much considering that Physical defense is widely available, but small amounts of Physical offense are everywhere as well at the level of battling where Fan of Swords would see play. Fan of Swords will block the Physical icons on Kelpbeards Trident, all the Anagram Swords, Pirate Captains Cutlass, Ghostkersword, and Sword of White Lies. All these weapons utilize a small number of Physical icons, and as a result all these weapons will lose head-to-head against a Fan of Swords. As for Glittery Faerie Dust and Skarls Hasty Mace, both of these weapons may not utilize Physical icons in most cases, but these weapons are both weaker than Fan of Swords' offense and will lose the offensive track meet. Of course, a weapons true value should be measured in two weapons vs. two weapons scenarios, not head-to-head, since these scenarios are more realistic; we will dive into these scenarios soon.

Unlike the Anagram Swords, which boast strong quantities of a particular icon type, Fan of Swords has a fairly scattered icon alignment. Fan of Swords attacks with every icon type except for Fire, and 4.5 of these icons are Air while the other 5 icons types are a mere 2.5 icons. This poor assortment of icons has lead to proclamations that Fan of Swords is easy to block; this fact is partially true. However, it is important to remember that a shield is only truly effective if it is able to block equal-to or a greater number of icons than the offensive firepower that it is replacing. Consider the scenarios in which a Fan of Swords combined with an Anagram Sword can defeat opposing Hidden Tower weaponry:

A Fan of Swords paired with any Anagram Sword against dual Anagram Swords will result in a victory for the Fan of Swords user. (on average) Anagram Swords tend to generate an average of 3 Physical icons for 18 total icons, meaning that Fan of Swords will almost nullify the average Physical hits from dual Anagram Swords.

A Fan of Swords paired with Sword of Reif will defeat any combination of an Anagram Sword/Kelpbeards Trident and a HT-level shield, with the exception of Frozen Cyodrake Shield. Although a Fan of Swords does not share Fire icons in common with Sword of Reif, Hidden Tower shields are quite inadequate at covering mass-Fire icons. Only Faerie Tabard can stop a few Fire icons, but Faerie Tabard will fail to stop the Dark, Light, and some of the Air icons that Fan of Swords offers.

The trend with all the combos listed above is this: a Fan of Swords paired with an Anagram Sword will defeat dual Anagram Swords head-to-head, and each combo with the mention Anagram Swords only has one of the several shields to watch out for. This means that for sets that already sport these popular Anagram Swords, Fan of Swords can easily jump right in and combo. In addition, reflectors are virtually useless against Fan of Swords, unlike the Anagram Swords, which each have a Kryptonite.

Two thoughts on how not to use Fan of Swords: Don't dual wield these fans, and don't combo Fan of Swords with a shield.

Dual wielding Fan of Swords is impractical. Although the small amount of Physical defense on a single Fan of Swords is fantastic, there is rarely a need for 10 full icons worth of Physical defense. In addition, the strength in combos involving Fan of Swords rely on differing and/or stacked icon types. Using two Fan of Swords together make it easy for Hidden Tower-level shields to get the best of them.

Also, using a shield with Fan of Swords is impractical. A Fan of Swords offers a pinch of defense without sacrificing much offense. Considering that almost all Hidden Tower-level shields offer some Physical defense, the Fan of Swords' defense is almost irrelevant. A lone Fan of Swords is also very susceptible to opposing defenses. Offense-oriented combos are important for Fan of Swords' success.

As for 1-Player usability, Fan of Swords is questionable. Although Fan of Swords will be able to block the ever-so-common Physical icons 1-Player challengers possess, Fan of Swords will also be mangled against 1-Player challengers' defenses, limiting if not preventing Fan of Swords from being superior to an Anagram Sword. A player owning multiple Anagram Swords can examine a challenger's loadout and select an Anagram Sword or two based on a 1-Player challenger's defensive deficiencies.

Overall, Fan of Swords is a very formidable new option in the Hidden Tower. This weapon is not unanimously well-received thanks to fractional icons and a scattered offense, but when considering hypothetical scenarios, and the number of scenarios where Fan of Swords can prevail in the Hidden Tower metagame, Fan of Swords is worthy of consideration alongside a set of several Anagram Swords.

Price/Power (2/5)Provides a pretty amazing spread of icons and some physical defense to boot so I wouldn't say this is totally worth overlooking. The price seems pretty typical of the level, but it is a very misleading weapon. Due to the fractional nature of the damage dealt by this weapon, what looks like a 20 icon attack is only 17... This means that the cheaper anagram swords still provide a much better option despite being easier to block.

Countermeasures (2/5)This item is basically impossible to totally block, which is a good thing. Since it uses all icon types besides fire it is rather difficult to deal with using only one weapon. Some items such as the Tower Shield, Wanderers Cloak or Virtupets X-514 Super Shield get partial hits however.

Alternatives Upgrades or DowngradesPersonally, I would prefer the fire damage found in Sword of Reif for my hard to block weapon needs as it provides a much higher damage potential for similar block resistance. Also at this price I would easily sacrifice the two damage found here for the slightly cheaper and weaker (but even more difficult to block) Glittery Faerie Dust .

Price/power (3/5): Not terrible for the price, especially since it's a dual duty. Fractional icons are a bummer, but in terms of total icons, it's not too bad.

Tactical (2/5): While this isn't too bad against anagram swords, the icon spread makes it unsuitable for most other purposes. Once your opponent sees you with this, they'll probably counter with a decent shield, such as the Faerie Tabard, Ghostkershield, Dr. Sloths Personal Body Armour, or the Hubrid Nox Memorial Shield. Even mid-level shields (i.e. full armour alternatives) such as the Shiny Shoal Shell Shield and the Studded Leather Cuirass will take off a considerable portion of your attack. Oh, and did I mention that this fan is vulnerable to the Tower Shield? Then again, you can overwhelm them the following turn with an anagram sword of your own--making this fan useful only to those who are good at playing mind games.

Bonus (1/1): Fighting fans are pretty cool.

Closing remarks: Unless you're able to confuse your opponent, you're better off with one of the anagram swords (or even Skarls Hasty Mace).